Chat Transcript – August 07
Chat Transcript – Inventory Management
Chat Topic: Inventory Management
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2007
Case sales and ordering
Q: I have a liquor store and want to track cases as well as single items. What is the best way to set that up?
A: The best way to do this would be to set up two items. The first would be the case and the second would be the single item. You could then use Parent/Child to define when the case item should be broken out. You may want to enable the 'May not be placed on purchase order' option on the single item so that you only order by the case.
This is also addressed in Knowledge Base Article 869706: How to Set Up Items using a Parent/Child Relationship When Items are sold individually and in a package. (CustomerSource login required. If you are on a support plan and do not have access to CustomerSource, please contact Sales Operations for assistance at 1-800-456-0025.)
Q: How can I set up the parent/child option for the items?
A: This would be done on the Special tab of the child item. In the Parent item box, select the item lookup code of the parent item, and then set the Child quantity to the number of items in the parent item. For example, if you have 24 singles in a case, you would set the child quantity at 24 on the child item.
Q: Hi. We are a distributor, and we want customers to order from us by the case on toys. Some cases of toys come with varying figures. How can we send down data for the store to import into RMS that will break out the case into individual items?
A: Is the variety within the case fixed?
Q: Unfortunately, no. But we do have an idea of the assortment ahead of time and would like to send it down to RMS users.
A: I'm not aware of a good way to handle this. If the contents of the case were fixed, you could set up the case as a kit item, and then order and receive the kit. After the kit is received, you could break down the kit into the individual component items.
Bin locations
Q: In Headquarters, why is the bin location across all stores and not store specific? A lot of stores have different layouts and this would help a lot if it were store specific.
A: This is a good suggestion. We will look at making this change in a future version. As a workaround, you could try using the Notes field, with a store on each line.
Q: We would like to see the ability to add more item location/bin information so inventory could be tracked by location within a store (store room, floor, etc). Any workaround for this?
A: If you simply need to track where quantities are, you could use any of the subdescription fields (or even Notes). If you need to track how many are in these locations, you could try using Offline Inventory. This should work as long as you don't need to sell (and deduct quantities) directly from the other locations.
Item messages
Q: We are looking for a way to tag items as "Mature" so they do not get sold to minors. Our current plan is to create an item message code and assign this to the item to pop up as the item is sold. Do you have any alternate suggestions?
A: The Item Message is the best way to handle this. This is an excellent scenario where this feature should be used.
Barcodes and scanners
Q: In item properties, if the Barcode field is left as “NONE,” will the scanner still pick up the type of barcode being scanned, or do you need to specify for each item the type of barcode being used?
A: Yes, the scanner will still pick up the Item Lookup Code and add it to the transaction successfully. The Barcode field in the item properties is only used when you print a label for the item. As long as the scanner can scan the code, it should work without a problem.
Q: I am having a really hard time setting up the scanner with RMS. It is a Metrologic Fusion 3780 scanner. When I scan a barcode in HyperTerminal it comes up fine, but when I try to do it in RMS, it’s like it doesn’t even see the scanner.
A: Since you are testing the scanner in HyperTerminal, I'm assuming it's a serial device. For RMS to work with this, you must have the OPOS service objects installed. If you've already done this, make sure the device works in their test application.
Q: This is a USB scanner. I’m doing a serial emulation. I used your OPOS service objects to configure, and the test was successful, but data said none in the test. Metrologic says the scanner is fine; it’s RMS that’s not configured
A: If the test doesn't show data, RMS won't either. The "success" result could be referring to opening and claiming the port. Have you tried the OPOS service object from Metrologic?
Or a different approach would be to set it up as keyboard emulation rather than serial. I'm not sure if this particular model supports that, but it should be a lot easier to set up within RMS.
Q: OK, so I would scan the right code for Metrologic to set up the scanner as keyboard emulation. Then what do I set up in RMS for the OPOS utility? Will that stay the same as Metrologic scanner?
A: If it's keyboard emulation and you have a CRLF (Carriage Return Line Feed) programmed, you will not have to configure this in RMS at all.
Q: So no OPOS objects will be required?
A: Correct. Keyboard wedge devices wouldn't need an OPOS object or any special configuration in RMS. Just remember to program the CRLF in the scanner. Without this, you'll see the barcode number in RMS, but the item won't be added to the transaction.
Other item properties
Q: Once a product is no longer being carried, should it be deleted? What impact will that have on other reports?
A: It's probably better to mark it as inactive. Deleting the item will prevent you from seeing historical information about it in reports, customer purchase history, old POs and transfers, and so on.
Making the item inactive will remove it from your lists but keep it in the database for reference.
Q: Is there a batch tool for changing large groups of item properties, such as categories and departments?
A: There are several tasks in the Inventory Wizard that can be used to make mass modifications to the database. There are Inventory Wizard tasks that allow you to change Item Prices, Costs, Sales Tax, Quantities, etc. However, we do not have a way to make mass changes to departments/categories outside of running a SQL statement.
Reporting
Q: What is the best way to keep track of inventory movement on a monthly basis?
A: You can track all inventory movement using the Item Movement and Item Movement History reports. Both of these can be filtered and/or grouped by date.
Q: We would like to be able to create pivot tables on inventory movement. What would you recommend?
A: Microsoft Office Excel is a great tool for creating pivot tables. You can export data from reports in RMS or connect to the database directly with some custom programming.
Q: In a multistore situation, if Store1 initiates a transfer of stock to Store 2, can there be a report showing stock which is "in flux" (i.e., sent from Store 1 but not received in Store 2) without having to manually work it out?
A: This information can be viewed in the Headquarters Inter-Store Inventory Transfer List report (View > Inventory Transfer Status). These transfers will show up as Partial.
Q: Is it possible to get a graphical report showing stock in all branches for matrix items?
A: No. However, it is a good suggestion.
Q: Is there a report available to determine the inventory value for each quarter of the fiscal year?
A: This could be done as a customization, but "out of the box" we don't have a report that will show inventory quantities (or values) on a given date. My only suggestion is to run these reports on that day, and then archive them. (Editor’s note: Archive a report by clicking the Export button in the report.)
Q: Recommend that this be added as part of RMS (report of inventory value for each quarter of the fiscal year).
A: This is a common request. We're looking at adding this in a future release.
Q: Regarding Inventory Value, this would be greatly appreciated. I would rather have it monthly. It is very difficult to reconcile inventory value to the accounting program without this report. What is the timeframe for this report?
A: Ideally, you would be able to set any date range you'd like (monthly, quarterly, and so on). As far as when this may be included in RMS, we can't give a date at this time.
Q: Can we make sure this suggestion gets noted this time. There was a post in the RMS Public Newsgroup on 10/28/2005 asking for this same thing.
A: Our Development team does not routinely scan the message boards for suggestions.
If you have a Product Suggestion, feel free to enter it using one of our product-suggestion tools:
PartnerSource — Click Global Suggestions, click Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, and then enter your suggestion.
CustomerSource — Click Product Suggestions, click Product Suggestions, click Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, and then enter your suggestion.
The number of votes for a suggestion is the main factor that is used to determine which changes we implement in future versions.
Q: Can you tell which cashier oversold an item (i.e., cashier rings in a sale, gets Insufficient Quantity on Item X, chooses Accept Requested)? Or how can this be identified in the Item Movement report?
A: There is not a way to back-calculate this, but this is a good suggestion in that we could require a reason code when an item is oversold. However, there is a customized Item Movement report in the Reports Library that shows On Hand quantity. This report could be filtered to On Hand < 0; and you could then drill into the item and run the Item Movement History report to see the movement associated with the item to see which cashiers sold to cause the quantity to go negative. You may also want to look at enabling the ‘Do not allow sale of items when out of stock’ option in Store Operations Manager (File > Configuration > Options > POS Options).
The Reports Library is located here:
https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/support/downloads/reportslibrary/rms/ModifiedReports/modifiedreports_rmsstoreoperationsreports.htm
(CustomerSource login required)
Q: We use Headquarters to create our POs and then push down the worksheets to each of our retail stores. Is it possible to see what's on order yet not received and committed along with the on-hand quantity of items? We have multiple POs for the same item.
A: There is an Item Quantity List report with Quantity On Order and Quantity To Order that shows this at the store level. The report is located in the Reports Library (must have access to CustomerSource). It also shows On Hand and Committed. This should also work at Headquarters, but you would want to test to see. The main issue would be you could not filter by store. If you need the report modified to work at Headquarters, please contact Technical Support at 1-888-477-7877.
Inventory tracking standalone
Q: Can the inventory part of RMS be used as a standalone? We are happy with our POS software and do not want to change. We currently do a nightly data dump from our POS software to our inventory software.
A: I am not sure if you can use the inventory part of RMS as a standalone. You can only do that if you have a tool that will let RMS know the item quantities sold/returned at the end of the day.
